Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine

On-screen: Marvin Gaye “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” – is the Black Power Domino. Black Panther militancy arose out of frustration at Black America’s unrewarding dialogue with The White Establishment. For young Blacks, the message “heard through the grapevine” was that Black America had to rely upon and defend itself in the aftermath of Watts. In creating the Black Panther Party, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale affirmed the right to use violence for self-protection against systemic police brutality. “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” shows the transition to “black is beautiful” activism: from young Black men hanging out on inner-city street corners, to young Blacks listening to Malcolm X. And from images of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Angela Davis to footage of Panthers parading in military formation, promoting Black Pride in community service programs, taking part in self-defense patrols, and giving the Black Power salute to the mainstream press at Black Panther rallies. Counterintelligence efforts of the FBI and police were directed to undermine the growing unity among the Black Panthers and other minority power movements. Ultimately, this period left nearly 30 Black Panthers dead, and many of its members fleeing the country. The Establishment had won a Pyrrhic victory.

This is a clip from the DOMINOES Movie that features music by the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Crosby Stills Nash Young ( CSNY ), Grateful Dead, Santana, B. B. King, Marvin Gaye, Janis Joplin, Van Morrison, Canned Heat, Richie Havens and more. DOMINOES is about the electric, turbulent decade of rock, revolution, and the Vietnam War and focuses on a succession of thirteen evolutionary tableaus, conveying the directors view that one thing leads to another, as in the domino effect where one change or event causes a similar one, which then causes an additional one, and so on in a linear sequence. DOMINOES creation began in 1976, long before the appearance of rock videos. Its composition marked a radical departure in documentary filmmaking, that continued to separate it from other sixties films and videos. Completed in 1989, its release was delayed until summer of 2009, when it acquired dynamic distribution.